Ubuntu 11.04, Unity Released to Mixed Reactions

Ubuntu 11.04 was released on April 28 with a brand new interface and a couple default application changes. But all the talk is about Unity, that brand new interface. As one might predict, reactions are all over the spectrum.

The Unity interface has taken design cues from popular mobile systems with the focus being on saving screen space and making everything readily accessible from within that limited space. It appears designers were shooting for easy and beautiful, but some users are finding adjustment during these early days a bit challenging.

Unity consists of several significant changes to the traditional desktop layout. Unity consists of three main parts: Dash, Launcher, and Top Panel. Dash has replaced the traditional menu system with a window of icons that launch applications or places. The Launcher is the dock-looking element on the left side of the screen where running apps are represented. The Top Panel is the home of some applet indicators but its main function is work as the focused application's menu or main toolbar.

These Mac-like elements are causing some controversy. Some really like the new desktop while others find it very awkward and yet others are neither impressed or put off. There have been dozens of postings about Ubuntu's new Unity and they've been all over the map.

For example:

Ivor O'Connor said, "Ubuntu seems to be run by kiddies more interested in blinding you with eye-candy than allowing you to be productive."

Ethan C. Nobles said, "Unity is, in essence, a strip of icons that sits mockingly on the left side of the screen and makes running and switching between applications very clumsy. It’s buggy, too."

"I find Unity to be suffocating and unnecessary. For me it adds little value and seems to be in the way most of the time; so I would definitely not use Ubuntu 11.04 as one of my regular distros. I tried to like it but I just couldn’t," said Jim Lynch.

Of course the reviews aren't all bad:

"I have to say that a few months of using Unity leaves me loving it. There’s no desktop out there – not Windows, KDE or even OS X – that feels this well integrated and consistent." That is from Justin Pot.

A blogger on identified as Zenobia said, "Unity was a like a breeze of fresh air. I was quite excited with the changes. I love the dash in Unity."

"I like the changes a lot, because the desktop environment gets out of the way when I am using an application, but the launcher and application chooser is there if and when I want them," said Zeth.

Then you have those in middle of the road:

"After a bit of work, I’m enjoying my new Ubuntu with Unity. I don’t think it’s better than the previous Ubuntu, but it looks nice; it’s visually appealing and fast. But in my opinion, not as easy to use for those familiar with Ubuntu/Linux." This was posted on utherpendragonfly.wordpress.com.

"This is not a disaster like the KDE 4 release was. Ubuntu 11.04 is really the culmination of what Canonical have been doing for the past 6 (or so) years: it’s generally slick, it makes bold and well thought out choices, and it doesn’t get in your way," was found on flavor8.com.

Rob Williams said, "Unity impressed me a lot more than I expected it to. After some use, that all becomes easier to get used to, but I don't think it'll ever feel like it's the "best" way to do things. The simple fact is that it'll require more steps than what we're used to."

*****

One thing to note about most of the reviews is that few were entirely negative or positive. Most mention some good things and bad things. Again, like the thesis of this article, feelings were mixed. Another noticeable trend is that there were more negative than positive posts, but that's probably to be expected given human nature.

More evidence of this can be found in a recent poll at tuxmachines.org. Never has a poll been so closely voted:

How's Ubuntu 11.04? Percentage

Great! 14%

Good 13%

Okay 13%

Not So Good 15%

Awful! 11%

Who Cares? 35%

Total Votes679

Work-flow isn't the only consideration. There have been significant bugs reported as well. The most prominent was the installer partition selection bug. This prevented those with partitioned drives to choose which partition to install upon.

This release may have been a real departure for Ubuntu and its developers, but users are not all universally pleased. Some are and some aren't. So, if you were waiting for the reviews to help you decide, you're out of luck. This is one you'll have to test and decide for yourself.

Comment viewing options

Do not like the new desktop at all. Takes forever just to find things where Lynx was just a click or scroll. A dark Maze would be easier to navigate. I USED Natty in the Classic mode-NO extras, on my old XP machine. THEN, THAT 7 yr old hard drive died. So, enter a Gateway 64 bit with Win7. So doing the dual boot, I decided to try MINT 11. I love it, but the same problem with NATTY HAS cropped up with MINT. NO Headphone sound. My XP machine worked fine. But Here, I have only PC Sound. When the headphone is plugged in, the sound STILL comes out the PC speakers only. No headphone sound or cut out at all. OH Well, Guess I have to use WIN7 to listen to radio/music.

I don’t think there’s an issue with Ubuntu and GNOME3. I recommend bookmarking the OMG Ubuntu website for updates. As far as I understand it, the next release will either have GNOME3 pre-installed or easily down-loadable.

There’s no need to feel like you’re in the dark. Keep up with the latest developments.

I keep on using Ubuntu 11, but in classic no effects mode, because Unity must be the worst piece of crap software ever made, unless you are running ubuntu on an ipad or something. Sadly I have been trying all other distros and found no one to quite fill ubuntu classics shoes. And now I hear that Ubuntu Classic will be delete from 11.10. Well, if that happens, I may be forced, against my will, of utterly discarding Ubuntu and going for something else instead.

Unity is wrong, and discarding and diabling Gnome takes away every choice we have of having an OS the way we like to have it.

Ubuntu is no more a linux distribution, because they have broken the sacred rules of linux already. They can remedy it in 11.10, or lose it completely.

ubuntu 11.04, i think was a step back in utility, the gnome was much more versatile and liberal, the fixed left panel and the main window, is over restricted and annoying. Also the view of productivity was a bit of a failure, yes its true some people use ubuntu for work office and other stuff not just eye candy, that really puts me of the computer is a tool, not a toy.

The kde can do what ubuntu unity does, can create your own setup, even make it look the same as unity, more flexible. Its a shame because i always used ubuntu, that is about three years and 11.04 made me switch.

There is an age-old Unix/Linux saying : KISS, and no I don't mean Simmons from Family jewels.
I mean, the UNIX "KeepItSimpleSt*pid".
Here's another one, "You can have either:
1./ Ease/Automation, or
2./ Speed/Performance, or
3./ Stability/Security
NOW, you can only pick one, 'cause that's all u're gonna get. We can't have it all.
Arch Linux has thus far, followed these principles almost to the letter, and OpenBSD even more so with (Keep It Secure/Simple/Stable St*pid)
anyway, "Unity" has obviously gone a different direction instead. There's no "real" blame here. It's called choice. Just look at Vista -it ended up on the scrap heap. It may happen to "Unity" on Ubuntu. ?
I hope, that in the months and/or years to come, Unity will get better.
either way, maybe Mark Shittleworth needs to go back to Linux Programming school. !
comon', I realize Ubuntu wants to tout itself as the Microsoft/Apple alternative/replacement. (as far as OS's go). but geez, if the folks at ubuntu want to experiment with the new Uniry, then why didn't they just do it with "Edubuntu" instead ? It's more suited for the kiddies'.

On the other hand, I feel a great respect and awe, from what I think, Ubuntu has been trying to do all these years - namely, a "fully automated" and "free" replacement NetOS for any PC/..., in the world. They succeeded.
Ok, and those are huge boots to fill. (considering M$ has been trying to do that for 30 years now).
Add the fact that greedy/proprietary Hardware companies (aka Nvidia, and AMD/ATI, and, ...) still seem to take Linux/Ubuntu as a joke. (Nvidia's drivers, albeit, are atleast good).
This also makes it even more exponetially hard for Ubuntu to achieve this. Hey Nvidia/AMD:"don't you want to make more money selling millions of more Graphics cards for Linux Desktops ?" uhh Oh ya, that's right,: WHAT OTHER CHOICE's DO WE ACTUALLY HAVE ? yep, that's what I thought, we're stuck with your crappy/proprietary driver hand-outs :(
...for the same similarly ridiculous reasons, Adobe won't port Premiere Pro over to Linux.
ahh well, pffft, "kdenlive" is far better anyway.

Sure, we would all love some Ubuntu "Hardware" sourced entities, then it would be a perfect Linux world. I would gladly pay double the price just to have those cards, ...
Either way, we all have to pay for the Hardware right ?
And someday, somewhere, somehow, when your OS's and Drivers' come freely with your "Hardware"-(that we ALL purchase) then ALL those companies above, and more, will literally come crawling to Linux. -and that'll be becuase "they" won't have a choice now will they?" Ha ha -right back at 'ya babies'.

Ok, all kidding aside, and getting back to "Unity" again, Arch + Gnome/KDE runs well, and runs twice as fast as "ANY" same Ubuntu derivative.
Arch + KDE makes Kubuntu look like overweighted SUV (a Pig with no guts to Go!).
But, to the casual user, Arch can be a real "pain" to setup and configure properly, even after hours of reading, whereas, Ubuntu/Unity makes it actually easier to install than Windows.

So, at the end of the day, and becuase there are just sooooo many other Linux distro's to choose from, I just don't worry anymore,
I remeber ibm's RHEL (redhat) fiasco ?, well, eventually and thankfully, CentOS came alomg to fill that Linus/Sever vacuum. So, no worries.
Linux finally broke those 1, 2, and 3 (UNIX)Rules above, by giving us a plethora of "FREE" distro's to match any one of those old "Rules" ;)

Unity was a disaster for me, because:
1 - I love my cube. I want my compiz to be on a 3D cube with the cool effects. Life sucks enough to have a few guilty pleasure people don;t take over from you without warning.
2 - I often have a lot of different applications open at the same time on my screen. I want to see all my applications menu at the same time. I don't want to have only one menu displayed at the same time on the top screen, and to have to click on an application window to have visual access to their top menu. This is a huge reduction of my visual possibilities.
3 - my desktop is my working tool. I can't have everything different like that one morning for my professional tools. The ergonomic is too strongly remade. Please keep teenagers under acid influence out of the Ubuntu development team.
4 - at the same time, I will appreciate my application and preferences to stop disappearing from my Ubuntu after every release update. If I install Virtual box, it is because I use it. I don't want to have to reinstall it once again after a release update. I know i had a lot of useful software before, I don't really remember their name as I didn;t use some of them very often, but I know they were here, somewhere, ready to be used again if I need. And they disappeared after the released. So bad for me.
5 - More generally, I'm an IT developer. I learnt with the time it is very bad to brutally change and break everything in a good working tool. You have to go by small updates, to offer choices, to add functionalities, but you can't break everything to make new as you lose a lot of your users who were very satisfied _before_ you decided to move everything. Only apple made that once, and they said later they regret and it was bad decisions.

I love my cube. I want my compiz to be on a 3D cube with the cool effects. Life sucks enough to have a few guilty pleasure people don't take over from you without warning.

Understood. And I agree. I like my Compiz and I don't want to see it go. Upgrading to Unity did some terrible things to my desktop. I quickly restored Ubuntu 10.10 and decided to wait for 11.10.

my desktop is my working tool. I can't have everything different like that one morning for my professional tools. The ergonomic is too strongly remade. Please keep teenagers under acid influence out of the Ubuntu development team.

Point taken. But please understand: GNOME3 is a major change from GNOME2. And you and I both know our way around GNOME2. Such a change was experienced by Windows XP users when they found themselves using Vista. It seemed to be change for the sake of change. Such change reduces productivity causing frustration in many users. However, due to GNOME's upgrade to version 3, Canonical felt they could offer the new desktop or their own.

More generally, I'm an IT developer. I learnt with the time it is very bad to brutally change and break everything in a good working tool. You have to go by small updates, to offer choices, to add functionalities, but you can't break everything to make new as you lose a lot of your users who were very satisfied _before_ you decided to move everything. Only apple made that once, and they said later they regret and it was bad decisions.

A brutal change was coming either way whether Canonical went with GNOME3 or Unity. They could try to offer GNOME2 for a while longer, but eventually they had to make some kind of decision concerning their desktop. And to be fair, Unity isn't very different from GNOME3. This is why the blame for the shock should not be laid at Canonical's feet.

It would be of great interest to read a neutral case study that examined which of the three desktops are more efficient: Unity, GNOME3 or GNOME2. My vote is for GNOME2. How wrong can you go when you see Applications, Places and System on the top left corner?

Over at the Ubuntu Forums, there's a "Unity" thread. This discussion has been going on for quite some time now.

Seems the most frequent positive response is along these lines: "Try Fedora 15 Live CD to see if you like GNOME3."

Unity users experience Unity by upgrading to 11.04. And while Canonical felt that Unity was a much better option than GNOME3, GNOME3 users disagree, feeling that Canonical didn't really give the new GNOME a fair trial.

Switching earlier was really troublesome. At work I was using windows 7 but in now gave ubuntu a shot. I am finding many of its features too complex for a person on my IQ. But i hope I will slowly get used to it.

Just got a new Lenovo w520. I am happy to say that with Ubuntu 11.04 everything is working perfectly. Had a little bit of trouble with the Nvidia drivers which was easily fixed after some BIOS settings. To me this is the most important thing when it comes to a Linux distribution, compatibility with hardware. I have been using Ubuntu for 5 years and they have made this easy.

Now back to the topic of Unity. Just finished configuring it today. It took me a couple of hours to get everything to my liking. But I have to say is not bad at all. The only weakness I see is the global menu. However, if you configure all your applications to initiate in a maximized state, with the use of quick keys you can be very productive with unity. There are also settings in compiz to control the size of the icons and hiding features. Personally I will use it for a few moves and try to adjust.

At the end of the day. If is really that annoying and you want to configure your own dock and menus switch to the classic desktop. Everyone here is complaining like they have no options. This is Linux and you will always have full control of your window manager.

Looks sweet at first - then I realize about the "global menu" - I am willing to give credit where credit is due on the MacOS / Windows divide but I have ALWAYS hated the global menu concept in the MacOS - it is counter intuitive to me - it makes no sense, particularly if you like to have lots of windows open. The window concept is that the visual window itself IS the program - so why is the menu bar, the main interface to the program, disconnected from the main program window? It sucks! Plus why are terminal, control center etc not fixed to the toolbar right from the start? Indeed theey are not even in the first screen in the apps folder. This is all TOO Mac for me.

1. I agree with the nay-sayers here: The only reasonable way to run Ubuntu 11.04 us with the classic desktop.

2. Let's give the gurus time. Canonical's philosophy states the Launcher should be on the left side of the screen. They are essentially telling us what's good for us. We have no choice. Sound familiar? (*cough* Microsoft *cough*). There are gurus out there who have a better philosophy: customization is king. Canonical won't let us move the Launcher? Someone somewhere will eventually provide a stable hack.

3. If Unity cannot be reasonably hacked? Then there are other desktops to visit. I'm not a fan of KDE. Never will be. But there are many other options. SuSE and Fedora come to mind.

+1 Unity is just pathetic. I need to be able to customize it, like i don't want it always hiding when i open an application. I want to be able to switch from app to app quickly which is something that i can't do in unity. I can't even choose what side the freaking bar is on! For these reasons im going to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. In No way shape or form will i ever go to the new releases if they are going to include unity in them, which(Starting with 11.10) they will no longer include the classic desktop enviorment.

If Unity had the programs in the "app drawer" (which seems the most reasonable name for it) categorised in folders, like in Gnome's main menu, it'd be alright.
If we could have our panels back (for example, so I can use DockbarX, Audio Recorder Applet, Force Quit, and Caps Lock Notifier), it'd be good.
And finally, if the stinkin' chat and email indicators could be turned off, then Unity would be better.

So Canonical will have to work out some kind of Gnomity interface. Unity, currently, is a frustrating experience which just leaves people switching back to GNOME (after a very long drawn-out process) and kissing its sorry ass goodbye.

I wasn't sure if I was going to like it so had to try it in a vbox first.

guyguy did and incredible job summarizing my feelings about it's GUI, no need to revisit that in my reply.

I have always felt the centralized menu thing was down right stpuid and one of the annoyances found in macs. After all this hype they copy one of the weaknesses from its supposed competitor? Great!

Not only I find the retracting bar very unpractical, obtrusive and counter-productive, it ain't pretty at all. Maybe, maybe, if you really like that Fisher Price look of a certain fruity brand or the default XP theme (luna), but AWN looks waaaay better anyway and it happens to work MUCH better too. Tack on Synapse and you would start wondering what 'innovation' dash really brings to the table. Unity neither has looks nor functionality.

I upgraded anyway for the sake of other features like libre office, but unity is a big FAIL in my book. Personally I really dislike this... what appears to be a gravitation toward touch-screen centric UI development. Unfortunately win8 seems to be headed there too with what little I have seen from their promo clips.

Unity is slowing you down !
you must click several times to get to what you want !
Ubuntu is the slowest distro and they dont even know it!
They say its fast and you will feel like you have a new computer! LOL , windows 7 is about 3 times faster on my pc than ubuntu.

*must click several times to get what you want*
dude, you're obviously doing it wrong.

alt + F2 -> type the app you want to run -> hit enter
OR
Windows button + A -> type *vaguely* what you want to run -> hit enter

Why would you use a mouse? And even if you use a mouse, it still doesn't include more than 2 clicks. You either:

A: hit the left top corner with your mouse, and click on the app you want
B: hit the left top corner with your mouse, and click the app launcher

Why do people say it's confusing or more work? It's pretty much the same as before, only with less menu browsing and more "type what you're looking for" stuff. Oh, and if you need the settings for certain stuff, it's:

click the right top corner, select system settings.

There. The meat of unity completely demystified. Srsly, people should stop and read the manual once in a while. ^^;

You are very VERY wrong. Sure, if I know the name of what I want I can find it fast. But then again - in that case I just use the shell (which I use constantly anyway).

However, if I want to run something else, then I either have to know what its called (and then I'd use the shell) or, click A LOT.

Why "a lot"? because I *vaguely* type what I want, get a HUGE list of results, all hidden from me. Now I have to move my mouse all the way to the other side of the screen to press the "show all" arrow to actually get the results I wanted, and start scrolling (since the icons are huge - it takes more than the screen space to show everything).

Not only is it a lot of clicks - the clicks aren't even close to each other so there's a lot of mouse movement. And I have to search through a huge mess of things.

In "Ubuntu classic" I have a well organized menu system, everything is in its lace, everything is close, minimal mouse movement and I can really use the keyboard (arrows) efficiently as well. So in Unity they removed that. Makes sense?

Moreover - you saying "why would you use the mouse anyway" is an admission that the design of Unity sucks - since as a graphical interface with a mouse, it should allow easy mouse use, no?

Finally, to answer your specific A/B example:
unlike what you wrote, what I actually have to do now in Unity to use the "quick launch buttons" I set is:
- Move the mouse to the left of the screen.
- Wait. Sit there and wait (1-2 secs) for the retracting bar to appear.
- Look for where my app is. It's in a different place each time depending on the scroll status. They need the scroll since they put huge icons.
- (if needed) Scroll and keep looking.
- Move my mouse to the app.
- Click it.

I only started using 11.04 a few days ago, but have been using 10.10 since it came out. Ubuntu is the only Linux I've ever used.

Normally (at work) I use win7 but in the interest of learning new things installed Ubuntu. I don't like Unity. I feel like I have less control and that I am not able to tailor the desktop to be exactly what I want it to be - no more and no less. So I'm moving away from Ubuntu but only have about a year of knowledge invested in it so its no big deal. I dont want to go back to 10.10 as I like to have the latest version of whatever I'm using.

I tried the live CD distro. Personally I didn't like it. 1) My preference is text over icons any day. I read English not hieroglygh. 2) On the plus side the thing on the left hand side is customizable. I had a cell phone for a month that hand the same thing, but when I realized I was being forced to have icons on it that I didn't want and don't use I turned it in for a blackberry. 3) Gnome is customizable, I can add or remove things from the bars. 4) The menu items are were they belong, on the top of the window, not the some place else. 5) All the quote programs also available feel like spam and really belongs some place else. I get the notion somebody will be insert bing type clutter or spam next.
In summery I will stay with ubuntu 10.04 until the long term support expires then migrate to Debian most likely. Unity is still a frog that needs a princess' kiss.

I use Windows 7 on my main computer at home and Mac OSX at work. All my "secondary" computers use Ubuntu or Mint. I also run several versions of Ubuntu in VirtualBox on my main computer. I really like Linux, and since Ubuntu and Mint 9, I have found that transitioning to them from Windows requires very little effort. Not so with Unity. I can't find things; I can't customize the way I like; I feel trapped in an inflexible format. Unity is supposed to be for "new" users transitioning from a "different" (read Windows) operating system. You gotta be kidding me! You could not get any more different from Windows if you tried. I suppose it might be somewhat familiar for people who only ever use a smart phone with apps, but most regular Windows users will sit there wondering where the heck everything is, how to navigate there, etc. As a choice, sure, what the heck, but if they eliminate gnome in future versions, and have Unity as the only option, nobody will switch to it. This is not even addressing some of the installation problems that confounded me (a relatively experienced user). Mint will become the option of choice for users like me who do not like Unity.

It's quite obvious that Unity was built for mobile touch-screen devices. It's built for people who just want to run a few applications and check facebook.

I work on my Linux. I can't use Unity, no matter how much I tried. I need the easy to use application launch menu, as opposed to the current grotesque "everything in one place, can't find anything" thing. I need to see all the open windows, so I can easily know what's open and what's not on each desktop. And yes, I need to see the title of each window at all times, as you can using the gnome panel --- most applications give information in the titlebar such as when the compilation is done or whether you got a new email. Now I constantly have to alt-tab to check.

I can't stand having to continuously move my mouse all over the screen because they decided to take things that belong together and move them far far apart --- such at the menu for programs, or the application navigation. I can see how it won't bother a person with a touchscreen, but *some people* use linux on an actual computer.

I just... I got so frustrated trying to use it. It's like they took everything and just moved it around without thinking at all. As if they don't understand the basics in user interface. Who still thinks at this day and age that a "tuck away" side panel is good?! When you want to use it - it adds annoying delay and uncertainty (you don't know where you want your mouse to go until it's there), but if you want to do something else on the left of the screen, then it pops up and bothers you (think trying to go to the "back" button on your browser, but getting the sidebar to popup instead. Now you have to wait for it to retract before you can press "back". Oh, fun!)

Yes, it's great for toys. Will probably be great for mobile devices. But if this is the direction Ubuntu is going, then that's all it'll be good for. It's leaving the PC people behind.

I'm sorry, but this change is horrible. "uninstall Ubuntu and move on" kind of horrible.

Without trying we would not know what it is worth! Thank you Ubuntu for opportunity to try Unity (I like it but...) it is not finished project - that is why I use old Gnome...
Any way - well done! Make it better! It cannot be slower than the old version!!!
Best regards!

I'm running ubuntu 11.04 64-bit with Unity on my Lenovo thinkpad x100e because I could never quite get the kubuntus to work well enough for it (funnily enough, I rarely had a wireless problem--just the memory, graphics, and random shutdowns). Although Kubuntu 10.10 seemed to be pretty stable, it still seemed to chug along, rather than be the zippy kubuntu I know and love (I've never had problems with KDE 4--every time since Intrepid, it's been fine for me on my various Thinkpads).

Unity seems to be optimized for limited screen real estate. The x100e's 10.1" screen works well with the little sidebar, but other posters are right--unless you've got your favorite apps in the little chiclet bar, you're hunting for things in strange places. KDE's Netbook Remix (switchable from System Settings with a simple dropdown) made it easier, with a horizontal menu and a simple search bar that found your apps for you (I use KDE so much that I rarely bother with menus anymore).

I couldn't picture using Unity on anything other than a netbook, though. I've never been a fan of either auto-maximize or the Mac-like top menu not being connected to the window itself. KDE's netbook style had the same auto-maximize problem, which makes password or popup windows look ridiculous, even on a netbook. It may or may not have been fixed by now, but I prefer the regular plasma even on a netbook.

The netbook is my kitchen and tote-along computer, and for the few tasks it does, or the few apps I run when on the go, Unity does its thing capably (so far). On that netbook, with the amd graphics and 64-bit, an ubuntu install with either KDE or Unity running as desktop interface seemed more stable and functional than the straight kubuntu. In future releases, we'll see, I guess...

I've been using Gnome since I first moved to Ubuntu Linux in 2006, because of the huge number of negative comments I did not look forward to the change to the Unity GUI - I ignored rants, ranters are a nuisance who only cloud sensible discussion. After upgrading to 11.04 I must admit that my early impressions were not in the least favourable, my saving grace came in the form of a single article, written in one of the magazines to which I subscribe. 'Ubuntu User' Issue 09, page 18 has the article 'Exploring Unity', it completely changed my opinion of Unity.
I am long retired and use a computer purely for my own studies, often having at least 6 documents open (2 LO Writer, 3 interlinked spreadsheets and at least 1 drawing). At the same time I am connected to Firefox and Thunderbird. KeePassX is kept open because of my need to use passwords within Firefox, Banshee plays my music as I work. Gnome was ideal for the multi-tasking windows, I found Unity to be far too clumsy for the same work, that was until the article. In just a single week I have learned sufficient about Unity to realise that the Unity interface is far better for my own particular computer usage than that of Gnome's.
Before giving up on this desktop please learn as much as you can about it, I realise that my retirement means that I have more time than most but I'm sure that the busiest among us would have long term benefit from such study.

I've used Ubuntu since Breezy Badger, so that would put me in the 2006 category as well. I realize Canonical is stuck: either they offer us Gnome 3 (which they don't like), Gnome 2 (limited future support) or some other desktop (Unity, based heavily on Gnome 3, so support won't lay so heavily on Canonical's shoulders).

I think the pain most Ubuntu users are experiencing with Unity is a lack of a good tutorial. You seem to have found a source that helped you "over the hump". The rest of us are looking at Unity thinking "Unity is Vista's retarded younger brother".

And by that I mean: Microsoft may have felt they improved their Windows UI greatly since XP. But the public didn't experience that "improvement" gradually. It was a major shock. Windows users felt many of these changes were unwanted and unnecessary. So it's not surprising to see Ubuntu users expressing the same frustration here.

I think there would be a whole lot less fuss, to be honest, if Unity was built with customization in mind. Gnome 2 users are complaining about what they're losing. If Unity offers what you feel is worth the upgrade, none of that would be lost if customization were included in Unity's design, allowing Gnome 2 die-hards the power to arrange their furniture as they see fit.

Since Unity is definitely the Gnome of Ubuntu's future, I sure hope

1. good articles can convince the rest of us
2. Unity gets a major UI overhaul by its next release with greater customization added
3. Ubuntu users don't all jump ship, but try other desktops such as XFCE and so on.

This sound like a small detail but it reflects in my opinion on the feedback. No doubt Unity is a huge step forward in many aspects. Remember win7 arrival, people got mad the control panel changed. Win guys made a smart choice to leave even the silly stuff in, so that people who go used to pressing on the screen settings to get to the screen power won't be forced to go to the power settings to do so.

Pressing is Unity left click on an icon brings an option menu. That menu has a launch option. This handles only one instance. Hovering icon and middle click on the mouse lets you launch multiple instances, however if you are in a laptop you need to press both buttons to achieve that. Last time I was forced to press both buttons of a mouse it was in a Unix terminal copy pasting text. It's absolutely crazy there isn't a launch in that small menu that lets you launch several instances. People are used to what they use daily, and the first thing about UI is letting them go on doing what they did until now in the same way. The second, is letting them do it easier. Menus etc... are just more of the same example.

Unity is a great step towards a goal, I think icon aggregation to folders (iphone style) will be the next one, Win7 peek to running app might be another. All in all it's an interesting step towards a truly innovative UI, I just hope ubuntu users will stick long enough to see it.

I have a friend.Who once asked me to configure his recently bought laptop.He told me to install windows 7 which I hate. Everbody here start their computer life with so called microsucks windows because no manufacturer here sells systems without windows except hcl and some others.And moreover people are goats following others.Same is happening with unity(goats don't even recognised how good unity is).

As I was talking about one of my friend,I installed windows 7 on his laptop.The next day he calls me and says , yaar , I am having some problems , like wifi doesn't work,windows asking for genuine license,I am not able to use bluetooth to connect my mobile,there's no battery symbol.Then I told him that he should buy genuine windows.Else he can install ubuntu 10.10 which is far better than anykind of windows and doors.I gave a demo of what ubuntu is to him and I also told him how easy it is to use ubuntu to connect your phone via bluetooth. He agreed. So I took my whole precious day to install ubuntu and important apps and must have packages for him.He looked agreed.But the next month when he came , I saw windows 7 again on his laptop and I asked him the reason. He told me that ubuntu crashed his laptop.I am pretty sure that he did lots of mistakes and blamed ubuntu.

see ubuntu is for human beings not for aliens!!!!!!!
you can't force monkeys and aliens to use ubuntu.
Its a precious gift.

But there are people who you can call humans. Like one Italian guy I met who also asked me to configure his ubuntu.I asked him why he like ubuntu , he told , it is very easy to use than windows. And that italian guy was not any technical person or a geek. He was just a common guy.But he uses linux , whereas he don't even know to work on microsucks windows environment.

Moral of the story is ubuntu 11.04 is the best operating system with its unity interface and loads of keyboard shortcuts which only humans can utilise

I have a friend.Who once asked me to configure his recently bought laptop.He told me to install windows 7 which I hate. Everbody here start their computer life with so called microsucks windows because no manufacturer here sells systems without windows except hcl and some others.And moreover people are goats following others.Same is happening with unity(goats don't even recognised how good unity is).

As I was talking about one of my friend,I installed windows 7 on his laptop.The next day he calls me and says , yaar , I am having some problems , like wifi doesn't work,windows asking for genuine license,I am not able to use bluetooth to connect my mobile,there's no battery symbol.Then I told him that he should buy genuine windows.Else he can install ubuntu 10.10 which is far better than anykind of windows and doors.I gave a demo of what ubuntu is to him and I also told him how easy it is to use ubuntu to connect your phone via bluetooth. He agreed. So I took my whole precious day to install ubuntu and important apps and must have packages for him.He looked agreed.But the next month when he came , I saw windows 7 again on his laptop and I asked him the reason. He told me that ubuntu crashed his laptop.I am pretty sure that he did lots of mistakes and blamed ubuntu.

see ubuntu is for human beings not for aliens!!!!!!!
you can't force monkeys and aliens to use ubuntu.
Its a precious gift.

But there are people who you can call humans. Like one Italian guy I met who also asked me to configure his ubuntu.I asked him why he like ubuntu , he told , it is very easy to use than windows. And that italian guy was not any technical person or a geek. He was just a common guy.But he uses linux , whereas he don't even know to work on microsucks windows environment.

Moral of the story is ubuntu 11.04 is the best operating system with its unity interface and loads of keyboard shortcuts which only humans can utilise

May be I'm lucky, but having installed 11.04 on two "not very old" PC's both installations said the hardware was not suitable for Unity and forced me to "classic". They seem fine - e.g no hangs (as yet).

But xubuntu and lubuntu seem to me the way to go. You just need to install better apps such as LibreOffice. These "lowers spec" versions of Ubuntu don't NEED old hardware to run!

Unity is as many others have said slow and more difficult to use, with too many mouse moves and clicks to do simple things.

At work I have a dual monitor setup with my laptop on the right and external monitor on the left... this makes the Unity bar almost impossible to use, as I find it really hard to get it to unhide when the left edge of the screen doesn't stop the mouse. Making the external monitor primary messes up the interface when I unplug it and no, I don't want to swap their positions. Gnome's standard interface works just fine with my setup.

The adoption of Unity has also "broken" some applications from use in Gnome - my installation includes Xara Extreme which since the upgrade has no visible menu bar. The 11.04 release of Ubuntu feels rushed and buggy. I am now trying vanilla Debian to get back to a stable experience.

In summary I am a very, very frustrated long-term Ubuntu fan who is likely to jump ship because of this decision by Canonical.

I dont see myself adapting Unity, the icons are a bit confusing and the first time I tried it locating applications took sometime. I'm glad my favourite distro Linux Mint is retaining Gnome ver 2.XX in its coming release of Linux Mint 11.

The ubuntu user base has too many @ss clowns roaming the forums. Juvenile responses by spoiled brats. Don't get me wrong, I love ubuntu, but a lot of users are just mindless fools. And that includes some of the people responding here too. Get a freakin life, losers.

I agree with most of what everyone is saying about icons (programs) harder to find and when the menus come up they are slowing the process down...and when they do come up they seem to be a bit jerky like back in the 8/16 bit WinDOwS/UNIX days...not smoothe in todays 32/64 bit realm. Overall feeling was that much was left to do to the perfection of making things smoother and comfortable to the user...which a lot of Linux lovers seem to contest anytime anyone would like comfort and ease built into the Desktop/GUI's...let's remember that not everyone wants to be a Linux Guru and that attitude is one of the main roadblocks to Linux becoming welcomed to the users of Windows/Mac's. I would rate Ubuntu 11.04 as alright. Nothing so great to right home to the kids or wife about. Ubuntu 10.04 is as good if not more efficient with its simple GNOME2.4 menus and is quite sufficient to develpers, network specialists and hardcore computer users as well as simple enough to appease the Linux newbies. Unity is just another toy to learn to adapt to and play with - and as anything that animals have to learn in order to get the bananas to drop into the feeding trough -- Unity will do the job and will still impress the unknowing newbies. Personally - I use Ubuntu 10.04 Alt CD with its fantastic hard drive encryption and LVM and to me that makes it much more suited for Internet security when using that P.C. for surfing...as well as that's what I use on my laptops -- for the encryption security that is needed just like Windows 7 Users get to have on their laptops and desktops. Of course in a pinch - any OS will do -- be it Linux or Windows 7.